Steve's 228G ... my reeftank 2.0

[Buccaneer]

So aquascaping is complete (till I change it again ) still playing around with closed loop eductor locations for even flow

setup skimmer and adjusted water level in sump by having the skimmer overflow into a bucket till it stopped and started to strip the water ... about 9.5" ... works really between 9 and 10 inches

Will take some shots of tank room when I get it cleaned up

Trim around tank going up next ... then working on lighting (currently just a couple cheesy 24" shop lights )

[Buccaneer]

So trim is up (just needs paint) ... inhabitants include Blonde Naso, Yellow Tang, Dussemeri Tang and pair of percs

[Buccaneer]

Shot of the camouflaged doorway

[Buccaneer]

Sink and RO unit

[Buccaneer]

Fold down ramp behind tank





Can see the returns for the closed loops more clearly here

[Buccaneer]

QT tank cycling

[Buccaneer]

Sump

[Buccaneer]

In the above pic the green garbage bin is my RO water storage with a float valve, pump and heater ... the bucket in front of that is circulating salt for water change.

Going through the usual cycles ... first was diatoms and a few days ago a spot or 2 of cyano so I have cut back from 3 X 400W MH to just the center MH on a reduced light cycle and so far it has held it back to one small spot down low that I blow off each night before lights out

Need to add a auto top off from the RO storage to the sump next

[Myka]

Looks good! Love the hidden doorway - I didn't even understand how it worked until you showed the pic of it open. I really like the idea of your boardwalk too, no ladders. Of course the Bob Marley banner is sweet too.

Originally Posted by Buccaneer

Going through the usual cycles ... first was diatoms and a few days ago a spot or 2 of cyano so I have cut back from 3 X 400W MH to just the center MH on a reduced light cycle and so far it has held it back to one small spot down low that I blow off each night before lights out

IME, tanks do better at the beginning if you just run your actinics/blues for the first month, then slowly introduce the halides increasing by an hour a week or so. It really makes a big difference, and the blues seem to really get the coralline growing.

[Buccaneer]

Originally Posted by Myka

Looks good! Love the hidden doorway - I didn't even understand how it worked until you showed the pic of it open. I really like the idea of your boardwalk too, no ladders. Of course the Bob Marley banner is sweet too.



IME, tanks do better at the beginning if you just run your actinics/blues for the first month, then slowly introduce the halides increasing by an hour a week or so. It really makes a big difference, and the blues seem to really get the coralline growing.

Thanks!

All tank rooms should have Bob's music playing LOL

This is a restart from like 10 years ago ( except newer smaller tank/sump) so only lights I have running to begin with are my MH as they were at the top of the box I had on the shelf labelled "tank parts"... have 3 workhorse 7 ballasts and will be adding actinics in the future when I get around to buying some endcaps and wiring it all up